Hello!

I am an assistant professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Duke University. I study how citizens and non-state organizations influence the state-building process in contentious and polarized contexts. I am interested in three broad questions: (1) how the state builds capacity and exerts control; (2) how citizens exercise agency and conditional engagement during the state-building process; and (3) how mediating factors shape state legitimacy and citizen trust.

Thematically, my research contributes to literatures on conflict legacies, citizen engagement, and media & (mis)information. My book (Governing After War) explores post-war state-building and consolidation of power following rebel victory.

My work has been published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, World Politics, Political Science Research and Methods, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, and others. I was a 2018-2019 Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). I received my PhD in Government from Harvard in 2020. From 2020-2023, I was an assistant professor at UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy.